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DIY ZERO WASTE SIMPLE COCONUT MILK

7 July 2017

001. As part of Plastic Free July, I am choosing not to buy my regular milk that comes with a plastic lid- so it was time to make my own! I've made almond milk before, which was successful however, it worked out to be more expensive than buying the almond milk on the shelf because nuts are expensive man! But luckily for me coconuts chips/flakes are less than half the price of almonds and possibly even more delicious. Here is my very basic recipe for zero waste coconut milk, which is totally open to interpretation and adaptions to suit your tastebuds.

INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup of coconut flakes unsweetened (I buy mine from my local bulk food shop)
- approx. half a litre of water (the ratio is 1 cup coconut flakes to half litre water, 2 cups coconut flakes to 1 litre water etc etc.)
- *optional* a sweetener of some kind, be it sugar, dates or rice malt syrup it's up to you (I'm not into sweet stuff too much so don't like to add this to mine, but everyone's taste buds are different)

TOOLS:
- a blender
- a nut milk bag to strain through (any type of super fine cheesecloth fabric would work well too)
- a jar to store it in (I like to reuse leftover tall pasta sauce jars as I find they just fit perfectly in my tiny fridge)

STEPS:
1. soak the coconut flakes and in water for a few hours (you can skip this step, but I find it makes the end product creamier if soaked)
2. blend for a couple of minutes in the blender
3. strain coconut milk mix through the nut milk bag to get rid of any chunky parts- make sure you squeeze every last drop out!
4. put in the fridge and enjoy! also helps it you give it a nice little shake each time you use it too! I like to keep the leftover coconut pulp from straining (which is essentially just super fine desiccated coconut) in the fridge too and put it in my oats, cereal or smoothies.

002. This is now my go-to nut milk- SUPER easy and super delicious. Hope you enjoyed this little recipe as part of the eco/plastic free/ waste free living section on this blog- keep updated for more goodies coming this way soon.